This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Unregistered cohabitation in Israel" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
Part of the LGBT rights series
Marriage
Civil unions and
registered partnerships
Common-law marriage
Minimal recognition
See also
Notes
  1. Performed in the Netherlands proper, including the Caribbean Netherlands. Registered in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten in such cases, but the rights of marriage are not guaranteed.
  2. Neither performed nor recognized in Niue, Tokelau, or the Cook Islands.
  3. Neither performed nor recognized in six British Overseas Territories.
  4. Neither performed nor recognized in some tribal nations. Recognized but not performed in several other tribal nations and American Samoa.
  5. Cohabitation. Registered foreign marriages confer limited rights. Marriage recognized in some cities.
  6. The Coman v. Romania ruling of the European Court of Justice obliges the state to provide residency rights for the foreign spouses of EU citizens. All EU member states except Romania follow the ruling.
  7. Recognition of a "declaration of family relationship", which may be useful in matters such as housing, but they are not legally binding.
  8. Guardianship agreements, conferring some limited legal benefits, including decisions about medical and personal care.
  9. Inheritance, guardianship rights, and residency rights for foreign spouses of legal residents.
  10. Courts have recognised guru–shishya, nata pratha or maitri karar–type contractual relationships, but they are not legally binding.
  11. Some cities and prefectures issue partnership certificates, but they are not legally binding.
  12. Marriages conducted abroad between a Namibian national and a foreign spouse recognized for residency rights.
  13. Hospital visitation rights through a "legal representative" status.
* Not yet in effect
LGBT portal

Israel has granted unregistered cohabitation for same-sex couples since 1994, in the form of common-law marriage, a status that until then was only extended to opposite-sex couples.[1] Following lawsuits, same-sex couples enjoy several spousal benefits (1994–1996) and the right of same-sex partners of civil service employees to survivor benefits (1998).

Insurance companies recognize same-sex partners in regard to deceased's ensured employment compensation benefits to surviving partner (1999). The National Insurance (Ha-Mossad le-Bitauach Leumi) Institute officially recognizes co-habitations and grants all pension rights, survivors and widows rights of the same sex partner of the deceased (2000), non-biological parents can register guardianship of their partner's child (2001); a January, 2005 supreme court ruling has made it possible for a partner to legally adopt a same-sex partner's biological child.

Foreign partners of Israeli LGBT citizens are generally entitled to receive residency permits. The Civil Service Commission grants spousal benefits and pensions to the partners of gay employees. The Israeli State Attorney's Office applies the spousal exemption from property-transfer taxes to same-sex couples. Israel's attorney general has granted legal recognition to same-sex couples in financial and other business matters. Attorney General Menachem Mazuz said the couples will be treated the same as common-law spouses, recognizing them as legal units for tax, real estate, and financial purposes. Mazuz made his decision by refusing to appeal a district court ruling in an inheritance case that recognized the legality of a same-sex union, his office said in a statement. Mazuz did differentiate, however, between recognizing same-sex unions for financial and practical purposes, as he did, and changing the law to officially sanction the unions, which would be a matter for parliament, according to the statement.

The city of Tel Aviv recognizes unmarried couples, including gays and lesbians, as family units and grants them discounts for municipal services. Under the bylaw, unmarried couples qualify for the same discounts on day care and the use of swimming pools, sports facilities, and other city-sponsored activities that married couples enjoy. In June 2020, it was reported that Tel Aviv will explicitly recognize both civil unions and same-sex marriage from outside Israel.[2]

In 2017, the Florida Third District Court of Appeal held that although Israel recognizes "reputed spouses" as a legal union, the union is not a marriage under Israeli law, and therefore Florida law does not recognize the relationship as a marriage.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "HCJ 721/94 El-Al Israel Airlines v. Danielowitz".
  2. ^ Anshel Pfeffer (2020-06-26). "Tel Aviv to become first Israeli authority to register same-sex partners". www.thejc.com. Archived from the original on 2020-07-28. Retrieved 2021-03-26.
  3. ^ Cohen v. Shushan, 212 So.3d 1113 (2017) ("Our decision upholds a fine — but very clear — distinction that has been set within Israel's marital law, one we must maintain out of respect to Israel's law-making authority. Because Ms. Shushan and the late Mr. Cohen's legal union was not entered into through any recognized religious authority, they were not married under Israeli law. Ms. Shushan, therefore, could not be a surviving spouse of Mr. Cohen").
Categories